


On Again, Off Again

by Writingwife83



Series: Sherlolly Week ‘17 [5]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, I Love You, Romance, Sherlock Is A Bit Not Good, Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 17:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10949619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writingwife83/pseuds/Writingwife83
Summary: Molly has just had an extremely unexpected conversation with Mummy Holmes and it's time to call Sherlock out on some rather bad behavior.





	On Again, Off Again

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted on tumblr for Day 6's theme "First I Love You." (and I'm pretending s4 never happened for this one lol)

Molly Hooper stomped up the stairs to 221B. Really stomped. The anger that coursed through her body was intense enough that it felt good to at the very least slam her feet on the steps as she climbed them. 

She’d rarely been this angry.

“Sherlock!”

Molly stormed into his flat with fire in her eyes. There he stood, his safety glasses covered eyes looking a bit confused as he stood at his kitchen table holding a beaker with some unidentified fluid in it. 

“Molly?” He looked her up and down in an obvious attempt at deduction as she marched in the room and tossed her bag and coat aside in preparation for battle.

“Sherlock, of all the deceitful, unfeeling, and insulting things to do…” she began, pacing back and forth with clenched fists. “How could you think to treat a friend this way?!”

“Look, Molly…” His words were spoken with caution, clearly seeing the level of emotion he was dealing with. “If this is about the experiment in your kitchen last week-”

“Wh- experiment?! What do you mean- oh never mind! Forget that for now! No, this is far worse than some mess in my kitchen. I’d take that ten times over!” She stopped and stared him directly in the eyes. “I just had a little visit...from your mother.”

Molly could see fear instantly flood his face.

“M-my...my mother- why would my mother...visit you?”

“Excellent question,” Molly agreed, crossing her arms over her middle. “I was just as surprised! Seemed a bit odd to me. But that was nothing compared to what she came to speak to me about.”

“Oh God,” Sherlock muttered to himself.

“Bit late to start looking to a higher power,” Molly said with a huff. “Especially seeing as you’ve apparently been so freely _lying_! Imagine my surprise when she explained that she thought it was her duty to come speak to me and make sure I understood how deeply heartbroken you still were _over our breakup from months ago_!”

Sherlock pressed his lips together tightly while slowly removing his safety glasses and setting the beaker in its stand. He cleared his throat, but Molly cut him off first.

“Do not, Sherlock, do not try to lie to me! At least show me the respect of being honest about the lies you’ve told about us!”

His gaze shifted uncomfortably and he let out a little sigh, nodding in agreement. “It was...a long time ago,” he began sheepishly. “At least, that’s when it started. Around...2013?”

“What?!”

He put his hands up defensively. “Yes, I know, I know! It was stupid and I never should have done it, but it seemed an...easy option at the time. You see, my parents came over shortly after _that_ Christmas. They happened to see your gift along with the note attached to it. It sparked...questions.”

Molly tightened her jaw.

“They remembered you from one time before that. They, you know, liked you. So they started bombarding me with an inane bunch of questions about you and making rather rude implications about both of our intentions and finally I just snapped and said, ‘we’re actually together!’”

Her eyes became saucers.

“It worked at the time,” he finished quietly. “Made them happy and stopped the harassment.”

Molly stepped closer, staring him down menacingly. “Your mother used the phrase ‘on again, off again’ about our supposed relationship. Exactly how many times have we been on and off?”

Sherlock tilted his head in extended thought process as he slipped past her to go stand by the comfort of his fireplace. “I’d say um...three times?”

“Sherlock!” Molly yelled in disbelief.

“Alright, fine, four times!” he admitted with a touch of panic.

“My God, Sherlock!” Molly let her head fall back for a moment, closing her eyes and trying to breathe deeply to calm herself. “How could you let a lie like that go on for _three bloody years_?!”

“I admit it got a bit out of hand,” he stated in an attempted calm tone. “But I became a bit addicted to the convenience of getting out of things with ease by saying that we had plans or perhaps I needed to do something for you instead. It was incredibly convenient having a girlfriend!” Molly’s expression apparently frightened him out of expounding on that sort of convenience any further. “In my defense, each time I invented a break up it was my intent to keep it that way and leave it in the past.”

“But apparently I can’t leave you alone!” Molly said, throwing her hands up with a humorless laugh. “What must your family think of me?!”

“To be frank, they think we can’t keep our hands off each other long enough to move on,” he stated with a small chuckle.

Molly glared daggers at him, making Sherlock’s expression retreat back to contrite.

“I’m sorry, I really am,” he attempted. “I did realize later, specifically after returning from my two years away, that it was very wrong and I wanted to put a stop to it.”

“Then walk me through the process of how it didn’t get stopped,” Molly demanded.

Sherlock blew out a heavy breath. “Well, first of all, a few weeks after I told them we were together, they wanted to meet you. I panicked and said that you’d broken up with me so I hardly wanted to stop by Bart’s so they could have a meet and greet with you. But not too long after they had wanted me to spend a week away with them and, well, I fell into old habits. Yes, yes, I’m sorry! Then later, it seemed they wanted to meet you again and I had to invent another breakup. When I bid my parents farewell before leaving after my fake suicide, they asked about whether you would be ok. I didn’t want them to seek you out, so I told them, in an effort to seem realistic, that although we had briefly rekindled things, I’d ended things with you once and for all since I had no idea how long I’d be gone. That was a good thing, seeing as you ended up with Tom and engaged by the time I returned. Probably would have raised some eyebrows if I hadn’t told them we’d broken up! Anyway, some time after your engagement had ended, my parents got wind of it, I believe from the Watsons. Naturally, they began hounding me on the possibility of us getting back together. I tried to brush it off and say I wasn’t interested but they were hardly convinced.” He ruffled his curls a bit in frustration.

Molly frowned to herself. What did he mean, ‘they weren’t convinced?’

“So after everything with Magnussen was settled and done with, and their questions were continuing, I broke down and admitted- well, not admitted,” he corrected hastily. “I mean to say gave in to agreeing with them that I wanted you back. Which, yes, I realize I shouldn’t have done. So...I said I’d soon be talking to you about how I still felt.”

Molly shook her head. “You know, I find it both unrealistic and insulting that you made it seem to your parents that each and every time we’d been apart for whatever reason, I was all too happy to get right back at it with you!”

Sherlock paced a bit, his hands on his hips. “I always made sure to make it sound like I had to work very hard to win you back!”

“Still, Sherlock!” Molly bellowed. “After all our years being friends, and everything you know that I’ve- I just can't believe you’d stoop to this level!”

“I have apologized, Molly,” he said desperately, approaching a bit closer. “It was just...it was easier at times to pretend that’s how things were with us!”

“Easier?” Molly questioned in disbelief. “How is it easier to be in a made up relationship?”

“Because it just made sense- no, I don’t mean like that!” He sighed in frustration and paused, seeming unsure about how to proceed.

Molly’s brow crinkled again as she watched him. He seemed almost as confused as she was.

“To...others, I mean,” Sherlock attempted to explain. “It made sense to others, like my parents, that we would be together.”

He stepped away again, walking around and gesturing a bit. “You’re _you_! Brilliant pathology specialist at Bart’s hospital with a peculiarly morbid sense of humor and attraction to the kind of world in which I prefer to reside. And who sees through me like I’m a pane of glass and puts up with me with a grace that’s almost unfathomable. Even in situations like this!”

Molly felt a tiny bit deflated now, her voice lowering considerably. “Who says I’m putting up with you right now?”

“You know what I mean,” he insisted. “You’re here aren’t you? You never seem to...give up on me. Not completely at least! Even when I pull a rubbish stunt like this!”

Molly swallowed hard. She tugged at the anger she felt earlier to pull it back to the surface. She would not allow him to soften her heart this quickly and easily!

“This is not ok, Sherlock! That’s the point. It doesn’t matter how much _easier_ it made your life to use me as an excuse from time to time! And it doesn’t matter how much sense it made to other people! This is unacceptable! And I still can’t see how this made your life easier when your own mother felt the need to put in a good word for you with me. You had to act like you were lovesick because of this!” Molly said with an incredulous laugh.

Sherlock rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t really- obviously she had misread my…” he shut his eyes for a moment before letting out a little growl and looking back at her. “Look, I wasn’t acting! It wasn’t an act!”

Molly’s head jerked back in shock.

“It wasn’t an act because I did want you back- want you, I mean! I wanted you because I am, in fact, in love with you!” He threw his arms up in resigned defeat before collapsing heavily into his chair.

Molly remained statue still in the middle of his sitting room, her jaw hanging slack as she watched him rub his hands over his face for a moment. Finally he looked back up at her.

“Yes, it started as a stupid stunt that seemed like a good way to get out of unwanted commitments,” he said quietly. “But that wasn’t how it ended up. I think it continued, not because I was stuck in the lie, but because...I wished it was true. I wished we were together because I loved you.”

Molly slowly made her legs, which felt like jelly, move her over to sit in John’s chair. She clasped her shaky hands together in her lap and cleared her throat.

“A-and were you ever going to maybe...tell me any of this?”

Sherlock leaned back and paused in thought. “Possibly, yes. I was considering it. Especially since I had actually told my mother I’d be speaking to you about how I felt. Perhaps it’s a good thing that she got to you first though. It obviously sped things along a bit.” He smiled at her hesitantly.

Molly wasn’t feeling in a smiley mood just yet though. 

“Not good, Sherlock,” she whispered quite seriously. “Really not good, despite what you’ve just said.”

He nodded. “Yes, I um...I realize that.”

“And I expect you to make this right. All of it! You’d better go to your parents and not only apologize to them for lying, but also explain every little detail of why this had nothing to do with me. Got it?”

He nodded more vehemently. “Absolutely, yes, understood.”

She gave him a little nod as well. “Good,” she chirped.

Molly thought about getting up and marching out of the room right then, without another word. Might be good to leave him hanging a bit. Unsure of where he stood with her. In fact, she did get up and turn to walk toward the door. 

But she only made it about halfway. She turned, walking back to where he now sat dejectedly in his chair.

“By the way, I’m not really sure why you wished you were in a relationship with me,” she stated, keeping her expression unreadable. “In all honesty, you have no clue what it would be like to have me as a girlfriend.”

Sherlock cracked a small smile. “Well, Molly, let’s not forget that I am me, and having known you very well for many years, I’d say it’s not incredibly difficult for me to deduce just how-”

She shut him up awfully quick; leaning down to bury her fingers in his hair and cover his mouth with hers. He was naturally caught off guard, but didn’t take very long to respond, standing from his chair to cradle and tilt her face in his hands to gain a better angle and more control over this kiss which was accelerating in record time. 

Molly had to admit she was more than satisfied with his contribution to the experience.

She attempted to leave again. Well, she thought she did. In reality she only succeeded in walking backward while still clinging greedily to him and enjoying the taste of his infuriatingly perfect lips, which eventually resulted in her back connecting with the wall beside his doorway. Sherlock certainly didn’t seem to mind based on the pleasantly low sighs of his that she could hear as well as feel against her tongue.

As difficult as it was, Molly forced herself to tug her lips free from his so she could look him in the eyes. She smiled and licked her lips quickly.

“So,” she said breathlessly. “You can consider that a little...preview, I suppose you could say. Something to look forward to.”  
He didn’t seem able to form words yet and instead eagerly leaned down again, reaching for her mouth. But Molly put her hand up, stopping him short.

“That is, if we ever get together,” she added, slipping out from between him and the wall and gathering up her coat and bag. 

“I-if?” Sherlock blinked rapidly, and she could swear he lost his footing a bit as she had stepped away.

“Well, yes,” she confirmed with another little smile. “I mean, hopefully we can be together soon. Whenever you, you know, actually fix this mess with your family and ask me out properly.”

Sherlock’s lips lifted slowly as he shook his head, appearing a bit impressed now with the woman who had succeeded in leaving him wanting more and wisely giving him the means to achieve it.

“Well played, Molly,” Sherlock drawled.

She grinned, looking pleased with herself as she stepped out the door. “So, maybe I’ll see you soon?”

“Ooh, I think it’ll be awfully soon, yes,” he said teasingly, leaning on the door frame as she began descending the stairs.

She turned before leaving though. “Oh and Sherlock?”

“Mm?”

Despite his foolishness, she couldn’t help giving him a truly warm smile and the reassurance of the words that she’d wanted to speak aloud for more years than she usually cared to admit to. 

“I love you too.” 

 


End file.
